Platinum Games head and Capcom designer Hideki Kamiya is waiting for another action game like Sony’s God of War to improve upon the gameplay set by his Devil May Cry.
“I’ve never played Ninja Gaiden, and to be honest, I’m not that interested,” commented Kamiya to 1Up on the Tecmo ninja franchise that some consider to be Microsoft’s answer to the Devil May Cry series Kamiya started.
He continued, complaining about Gaiden‘s lack of intrigue, “The quality that gets you interested in something is that you feel something for them. Like on TV, or a movie, or a song, or whatever. You just feel something, and you get pulled into it, and then that’s how you pick something up. But Ninja Gaiden just didn’t have that power, so that’s why I wasn’t interested in it.”
To Kamiya, no company really improved the genre after DMC‘s 2001 release.
“I don’t know why the baton was dropped, but it is very true that I don’t feel that anybody was like, ‘Oh my god, this guy created a game like Devil May Cry. We have to create something better,'” he stated. “I never got that feeling from others, so I really don’t know why no one picked up the baton.”
The closest comparison, and the only game Kamiya is looking to for inspiration, is the very American action game God of War, which is also another Sony franchise.
He explained, “But out of all those action titles, there’s one game that I am paying really close attention to, that I think is a rival game, a good game, which is called God of War 3. So I guess they’re working on the sequel? I want to make a game that exceeds God of War‘s sequel. That’s one title that I’m paying attention to.”
“My impression is that it’s very carefully made, the details are all carefully made. Devil May Cry was a bit rough, but I think that there’s no roughness in God of War. I thinks that it’s very well-made…. I felt like they created the game in a very good way which managed to bring in the users, they gave you a huge impactful feeling right in the beginning, and just drew you into the game. So I’m very impressed that they made the game like that,” stated Kamiya.
Now working with ex-Capcom employees from Clover Studio, Kamiya’s Bayonetta project is something he describes as “sexy”, different from the “cool” appeal of Devil May Cry.
When translating his game ideas to teammates, Kamiya will stand up and personally demonstrate the image in his mind. He revealed, “I’m usually picturing a steamy hot woman doing the move, and I’m trying to do that, but I’m not actually able to convey that to the team, so it sometimes doesn’t get across to the team.”
Oddly enough, this is the same process the Escapist editors use when editing articles.
